Wake up, Bermuda February 5, 2007Dear Sir,My wife and I are long-time Bermuda visitors. As you have heard over and over by many guests, Bermuda is paradise, the most beautiful place in the world, etc. These statements and others like them are all 100% true. But paradise is slowly tarnishing in front of your very eyes.

While my wife and I are not wealthy, we have no problem paying for food and services while in Bermuda. The prices are high and I just don’t care if I have to pay a little more for something in Bermuda because in the past, it has always been very worth it. We can deal with that. What I cannot, and will not deal with is your rapidly growing crime rate which is a telling tale when I read TheRoyal Gazette.

Just today, I read about the local (and his partners) who were robbing people at knifepoint along with several breaking and entering crimes. Why would I want to subject myself to this kind of treatment by visiting Bermuda today? In my past travels to Bermuda we were always treated with kindness and generosity. I love Bermuda more than you can possibly imagine. Today, I doubt seriously if I would be able to walk from Grotto Bay to the Swizzle Inn without being mugged, beaten or worse. We were planning a trip to Bermuda this year and the crime situation has made my decision. I won’t be coming back until there is a noticeable drop in crime rates. That’s roughly $9,000 of my money the island won’t be getting from me this year. While it is not a great deal of money from one family, it adds up if others start feeling the same way. And I know they do.

I read the Gazette almost daily and all I hear is how the crime problem is being studied or how these offenders will pay for their crimes. As it turns out, they get a slap on the wrist and set free to do it all over again. Give your police force the tools and manpower to do what it takes to prevent crime and fight the daily battles they encounter. Amend your laws to deliver swift and harsh punishment for those that feel it necessary to rob, beat and use violence on tourists AND locals. Make some examples of the offenders with some stiff prison sentences and see what that does to the crime rates.

Your country is getting to be more and more like America. I come to Bermuda to get away from this kind of thing. People need to start speaking up and taking action rather than saying its just relative to the world these days. It doesn’t have to be. Wake up Bermuda. Your drop in tourism isn’t necessarily because of the locals not getting jobs. Lock your offenders up for a good long while. When the prisons start filling up, build more. With this kind of crime and the fear it breeds for locals and tourists alike, when will the government realise that they will have to do something drastic so that this jewel of the Atlantic can go back to being the paradise it was meant to be?

> STEVE CRANE

Columbus, Ohio<$>Disgusted and appalled February 7, 2007Dear Sir,Re: “Enjoy Yourself In Bermuda”, February 6, 2007

When I read the above-noted article, I was appalled and somewhat disgusted. I do realise these incidents can occur in Bermuda just as well as in other areas of the world, but I guess I hold Bermuda in a higher stead than most places.

My reason for expressing disdain is that I and my wife have visited Bermuda at least seven ... maybe eight times during the years since 1988 and have enjoyed ourselves immensely on each and every occasion.

When I read your newspaper article and saw that there was a possibility the perpetrators may “get off” lightly, I was disturbed (to say the least). After all, a weapon was used in the commission of the robberies; lives were threatened. I hope the judge treats the situation seriously ... after all, tourists are an important commodity to the beautiful island of Bermuda. (This is not to say that anyone else’s life is worth any less.)

My wife and I wish to continue visiting Bermuda as long as our friends in Warwick will have us and if your justice system does not “nip” this problem “in the bud” and deal harshly with such criminals, then sadly, we will have to be a lot more cautious amongst whom we felt, had been some of the friendliest people on earth.

DON BROWN

Lindsay, Ontario